The instant the Bone Vessel pierced the Bloodriver, reflections of the Elder Ruins shimmered crimson in the ripples—nine shattered Pangu Celestial Pillars stabbed into chaotic void, each entwined with half-burnt star-chart scrolls. Their glyphs pulsed brighter as the vessel neared. Jin's Emberfire Banner suddenly emitted a sharp hum, its surface projecting the spectral image of Zhuyin, the First Emberkeeper. His phantom pointed toward the central chasm between the pillars: "The Fragment of Flux... lies where Pangu's heart fell."
Xuan stared at the colossal bronze temple drifting in that chasm. The "Emberfire Conclave" emblem on its roof had split into three shards: encrusted with ice, flesh, and emberfire residue. Flanking the temple gates, two kneeling statues of ancient ancestors melted—the left corroded by Primeval ice, the right devoured by Ancient fleshflood—only the Emberfire Sigil glowing stubbornly at each chest.
"The Elder World's meat grinder," Xuan tightened his grip on the Sky-Cleaving Axe, the Fragments of Stillness and Chaos resonating on its blade, carving spatial ripples in the air. "Every hundred zhang we advance, Three Antiquity erosion intensifies. Jin—stay aboard. The spacetime currents here would shred ordinary cultivators."
Jin shook her head. Her banner coiled into three fiery rings encircling her body. "Lord Zhuyin's memory shows the Flux Fragment requires both Pangu's bloodline and an Emberkeeper to awaken. And look..." She nodded toward the growing-clear temple gates where twelve ancestor spirits shimmered into view. "...the Conclave's guardians await us."
As the Bone Vessel slid into the chasm, twelve pairs of spirit-eyes snapped open. Their bodies: ash and emberfire. Their weapons: shattered bone-blades, fractured jade talismans, blazing beast-head totems. The lead spirit stepped forward, voice like wind-eroded stone: "Residue of Time, Emberkeeper Scion—will you accept the Elder Three Queries?"
"Ask freely." Xuan felt the Three Antiquity forces churning within him, each spirit rousing primordial Pangu memories in his blood.
First Query: "When Pangu Cleaved Heavens—did he sever the cocoon or weave another?" The spirit's bone-blade aimed at the fallen pillars. "We once believed he rent the cocoon. Until we saw cocoon threads regrow in the wounds."
Jin's banner blazed. Zhuyin's final moments appeared upon its fabric: "Cleaving was no calamity—but a cocoonicide. Yet cocoon-threads share its origin. The moment of severance doomed Three Antiquities to Symbiosis." Her voice thrummed with ancestral authority. "The First Emberkeeper offered his heart as kindling—to sow seeds of freedom in the cocoon's fissures."
The twelve spirits nodded as one. Bone-blades carved an Archway through voidspace: Second Query: "Are the Three Antiquity Laws prisons or crucibles?"
Xuan stepped through. Chrono Dust coalesced into a Threefold Taiji at his feet. "Primeval perfection is the cocoon's skin. Ancient chaos its flesh. Elder emberfire its lifeblood." His gaze pierced the Flux Fragment hovering inside—a bronze shard etched with time-glyphs. "We shall make the crucible forge a blade to break the cocoon—not a prison's lock."
The spirits began disintegrating, melting into stardust that merged with Xuan's Chrono Dust: Third Query: "When emberfire gutters—do we tend ash... or forge new flames?"
Jin suddenly knelt, slamming her banner into the ground: "Lord Zhuyin's last words: tending ash isn't nursing dying embers—but letting every soul become kindling!" She lifted her head, pupils mirroring the Flux Fragment within the temple. "Now, we channel Flux to set the Three Laws truly flowing!"
As the last spirit dissolved, the gates boomed open.
Xuan and Jin entered—only to find the Flux Fragment imprisoned in a Trinity Annihilation Matrix: Above—Primeval ice chains; Below—Ancient flesh-vines; Center—an Elder Emberfire Cage. Time-glyphs on the shard whirled backwards. With each revolution, decayed temple ruins briefly rejuvenated—only to crumble again in the next instant.
"Trinity Reverse-Time Array," Jin's banner morphed into an Emberkeeper War-Glaive. "All three chains must be severed simultaneously, or the fragment unravels into nothing."
Xuan nodded. Three Antiquity power detonated in his veins:
Left arm crystalline—shattered Stillness Chains, freezing backward glyphs; Right hand fleshy tendrils—entangled Chaos Vines, twisting temporal eddies; Heart's emberfire—lashed the Emberfire Cage in flux-stabilizing coils.
Three powers triangulated in voidspace—freezing the entire matrix mid-devolution.
"Now!" Jin's glaive dissolved into ten thousand Emberfire Arrows. They struck resonance nodes across the matrix. With each hit, war-cries of ancestors shook the halls. Collapsed pillars re-erected in emberfire.
Then—carnage erupted outside. Twelve Primeval Ice Spires and Ancient Flesh Citadels clashed at the gates. Atop the largest spire, Voidhollow Gaze's projection glared coldly: "Residue—you think gathering three shards breaks the cocoon? We planted cocoon threads within Flux!"
From the central flesh-citadel, Primogeniturge's eye-scream shredded air: "Chaos's feast tolerates no static spectators!" Her blood-mist seeped inside, fusing with the Voidhollow's frost to weave a Trinity Annihilation Net—every fiber poisoned by blended extreme Laws.
Xuan felt Three Antiquity powers convulse within him. Stillness and Chaos Fragments repelled violently, nearly tearing his spirit-core apart. Jin reacted instantly—plunging her banner into her own chest. Emberkeeper's heartblood ignited an Elder Forbidden Array: "Xuan! Use Flux's time-power—rewind the net's formation!"
Blood splashed the Flux Fragment. The shard sang clear—time-glyphs spun forward. Xuan poured Three Antiquity power into it. A phantom Time Dial materialized—matching the wheel Pangu wielded at the Sky-Cleaving. Each rotation reversed the Annihilation Net by a hundred zhang. The Trinity-fused citadels visibly aged under temporal recoil.
"Impossible!" Voidhollow's projection cracked. "Time-Law is our shared foundation! You wield it against us?"
Primogeniturge's eye rotted with rage: "My flesh decays in reversed time? This desecrates Chaos!"
But Xuan knew—this was Flux's true power. To let Three Laws collide through natural temporal flow, not forced annihilation. He raised the Dial, roaring at the besiegers beyond: "You preach 'guardians of Law'—yet blind yourselves to true law: granting each force its own time to grow!"
As the Dial's Emberfire Needle aligned with 'NOW'—the Elder Ruins detonated with light. Frozen citadels thawed into flowing waterways. Flesh-citadel surfaces crystallized into geometric lattice. Even the Voidhollow and Primogeniturge flickered—confused.
Seizing the moment—the Flux Fragment tore free of its prison. Light streaked into Xuan's brow. Pangu's memories surged whole in his mind. The Sky-Cleaving Axe's true form blazed clear: three shards—Stillness, Chaos, Flux—forged into Primordial Chaos Treasure. Each embodying a Law's essence.
"The Sky-Cleaving Axe… reforged at last." Jin's weakened laughter echoed. Her banner hung in tatters, yet her eyes shone. "Xuan... do you see it now? The whole cocoon?"
He nodded. Through Flux's power, he saw: Primeval outer layer—luring life into stasis with perfection; Ancient core—crushing rebellion with chaotic corrosion; Elder Ruins—the chasm between, rent by Pangu's dying strength... space for Laws to flow freely.
"Next," Xuan gripped the axe's phantom, three shard-lights flaring in unison, "we pierce the Cocoon Core. Where the Ancient Corpse slumbers—its dreams birthing Three Antiquity Law."
Jin rose, gazing at the retreating citadels: "We aren't alone. See? Ice spires fracture. Primeval ancestors awaken in the cracks. Flesh-citadels... mutants plant Emberfire Seeds within. The Laws... learn coexistence."
Xuan followed her gaze: at spire fractures, cultivators hesitantly touched campfires. Along flesh-citadel rivers, beings carved tools from ice-chunks. Tiny acts... yet freedom bloomed in the Law's gaps.
"To the Cocoon Core," Xuan steadied Jin aboard the Bone Vessel. Chrono Dust condensed triple-protection shields. "This time, we bring the newborn Three Antiquities... to face the Ancient Corpse. Breaking the cocoon isn't destruction—but letting every Law find its place."
As the Bone Vessel launched, the nine Celestial Pillars crumbled behind them. But from their collapsing dust rose a new capital city: architecture blending ice facets, throbbing flesh-spires, and Emberfire beacons. The Three Laws' first true cooperation—a landmark on the Unfolding Way.
And deep in the Cocoon Core—the Ancient Corpse's eyelids quivered. In its dream, Three Antiquity balance shattered. Primeval's absolute stasis, Ancient's rabid mutation, Elder's flickering remnants—all now flowed. Grew. Coexisted.
End of Chapter Five.